Malkorok Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic Mode included)

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the
encounter with Malkorok in Siege of Orgrimmar. It is targeted at anyone
who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.

Molkorok is the ninth boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid instance. This
boss is located in some sort of underground area of Orgrimmar that seems to
have been unlocked only as part of the Siege of Orgrimmar, since it is not
accessible in-game otherwise. This is a very challenging fight. It has a short
enrage timer, and it will require the utmost focus from your entire raid.

The Malkorok encounter has two phases that alternate until the boss
dies. These phases are on a fixed timer, and your raid's actions do not
affect their succession in any way.

The Might of the Kor'kron Phase is the first phase you will
experience. It lasts for 2 minutes, and during this time Malkorok uses several
abilities against your raid. After 2 minutes, the phase ends.

The Blood Rage Phase follows the Might of the Kor'kron Phase. It
lasts for 20 seconds, and during this time Malkorok only uses two abilities
against your raid.

Malkorok has a Rage bar which serves no other purpose than to indicate
when the next phase change will occur. When Malkorok reaches maximum Rage,
the Might of the Kor'Kron Phase ends and he enters the Blood Rage Phase,
causing his Rage to start decreasing. When his Rage reaches 0, he enters the
Might of the Kor'kron Phase once again.

Videos:

PTR Preview —
a short overview of the boss, based on PTR testing, which is extremely
useful for getting a rough understanding of the fight;

Video Guide
— a video guide of the boss, based on live-realm experience.

On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of the
fights of Siege of Orgrimmar. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things to
share, do not hesitate to contribute!

5.1. Abilities

Throughout the Might of the Kor'kron Phase, all raid members are affected by
a debuff called Ancient Miasma. This debuff has two effects.

Firstly, it causes all healing done to raid members to place a damage
absorption shield on them instead of healing them. The shields have a maximum
capacity of 100% of the player's maximum health. These shields protect players
even against fall damage.

Secondly, it deals a moderate amount of Shadow damage to all players every
2 seconds.

Malkorok himself uses several abilities against your raid.

Fatal Strike is a stacking debuff that Malkorok applies on his current
tank. Each stack increases the target's damage taken by 10% for 30 seconds.
This ability requires a tank switch.

Seismic Slam deals a massive amount of Physical damage to a random
raid member, knocking him up into the air. Any allies within a 5-yard radius
also take the same damage and are also knocked up. Malkorok uses this ability
roughly every 15 seconds.

Arcing Smash is a series of three frontal cone attacks that
Malkorok casts in random areas of his platform, about 15 seconds apart. The
attacks deal a massive amount of Physical damage.

Breath of Y'Shaarj is an ability that Malkorok uses about 10 seconds
after the third frontal cone attack of Arcing Smash. This ability deals a
lethal amount of Shadow damage to anyone standing in the areas of the platform
that had been affected by the previous three Arcing Smash frontal cone
attacks.

Imploding Energy is an ability that Malkorok uses roughly every
15 seconds. It creates a number of void zones (3 in 10-man, 7 in 25-man) on
the ground that, 4 seconds after appearing, deal a very high amount of Shadow
damage to any players standing in them. If there is not at least one person
damaged by each void zone, then the entire raid takes a very high amount of
Shadow damage instead.

5.2. Strategy

The strategy for this phase of the fight is very reliant on positioning and
awareness.

In addition to this, players have to avoid taking any unnecessary damage,
since Ancient Miasma makes it impossible to heal players. While
damage absorption shields can stack up to 100% of a player's maximum health,
players who temporarily lose their shield and take damage cannot be healed
up (but they can be re-shielded).

5.2.1. Tanking and Positioning

The boss should be tanked in the center of the platform, where the two
tanks will have to perform a standard tank switch.

The raid should spread out evenly around the entirety of the platform,
and players should aim to be at least 5 yards apart (so as not to take
unnecessary damage from Seismic Slam.

5.2.2. Arcing Smash and Breath of Y'Shaarj

Raid members will have to be quick on their feet to avoid the frontal cone
attacks of Arcing Smash (which, remember, will be cast in random areas of the
platform). We advise someone in your raid to place raid markers at the
locations where Arcing Smash hits, because everyone will have to stand
clear of these locations when Breath of Y'Shaarj is cast.

Assuming good movement abilities and general awareness from your raid
members, these mechanics should not pose any additional problems.

5.2.3. Imploding Energy

Imploding Energy creates several purple void zones at random
locations around the room (with an annoying tendency to rarely spawn under
raid members). At least one raid member (and ideally no more than one) should
run into each void zone before it has a chance to deal its damage. Ideally,
this task should be performed by players whose absorption shields are at
maximum capacity, since otherwise the damage of the void zone would damage
players beyond their shields.

This unavoidable damage means that players' absorption shields will
constantly be put under pressure, which in turn means that your healers will
constantly have to spam heal the raid to ensure that everyone's shields are
at maximum capacity. If players lose their shields and take additional damage
before they are re-shielded, this renders them very fragile for the remainder
of the phase because, as we have already said, it is no longer possible to
heal these players (all the healing will simply turn into an absorption
shield).

A particularly problematic moment of the fight is right at the pull,
when no one has any shields set up and everyone immediately starts taking
damage from Ancient Miasma. You should find ways to get a lot of burst
healing as soon as the fight starts. Beware of the fact that
the first Seismic Slam is cast only a few seconds after the fight starts,
so you cannot remain stacked up for long.

When Malkorok reaches 100 Rage, he enters the Blood Rage phase for
20 seconds. At the end of the phase, he goes back into the Might of the
Kor'kron phase.

6.1. Abilities

During this phase, the Ancient Miasma is no longer in effect. Malkorok
uses two abilities

Blood Rage causes each of Malkorok's melee attacks to deal an
extremely high amount of Physical damage split among all raid members in a cone
in front of him.

Displaced Energy is a debuff that Malkorok applies on random raid
members. It deals Shadow damage every 3 seconds for 9 seconds. When the debuff
expires or is dispelled, it explodes dealing a massive amount of Shadow damage
to all players within 8 yards. Players who are affected by Displaced Energy do
not take damage from the explosion.

When the Blood Rage phase ends, Malkorok gains a stack of
Relentless Assault, a buff that increases his damage done by 25% until
the end of the fight.

6.2. Strategy

This phase is very straightforward, but also very difficult. As soon as
Malkorok reaches 100 Rage, your raid should stack up in front of him (all the
while being mindful of the final Breath of Y'Shaarj before the transition).
Here, the raid will have to undergo a gruelling 20-second phase of very intense
raid damage. Healers should have defensive cooldowns prepared for this.

In addition to this, some players will be affected by Displaced Energy.
These players must move out of the raid to a location where they must be
dispelled or wait until their debuff expires. As soon as their debuff is gone,
they should move back in with the rest of the raid.

The Relentless Assault buff that Malkorok gains at the end of each
Blood Rage Phase is simply going to make the fight more difficult as it goes
on, but it does not require any action from your raid.

We recommend using Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp at the
start of the fight, because there is no better time to use it, and because
using it at the start allows all raid members to use all of their offensive
cooldowns.

Positioning and movement are the key concepts your raid will have to master
in order to defeat this boss (along with having enough DPS and HPS,
of course).

It is important that you emphasize the importance of proper positioning to
your raid members, because if multiple players take damage from abilities
that should only damage one player, your healers will struggle to keep everyone
alive.

You can have some attempts where you purposefully do not DPS Malkorok,
allowing your DPS players to focus solely on properly handling the mechanics.
Since the phase changes happen regardless of what your raid does, this will
even allow you to "test" the Blood Rage phase.

The Heroic mode of the Malkorok encounter is step up in difficulty,
compared to the previous Heroic modes in the Siege of Orgrimmar.
Although there are few mechanical
differences, the fight is very intense.

10.1. Differences From Normal Mode

In addition to Malkorok's health and damage being increased, there are a
few new mechanics to consider.

10.1.1. Might of the Kor'kron Phase

During the Might of the Kor'kron Phase, there are two new mechanics.

Every 3 seconds, a number of orbs of corruption (2 in 10-man and 5 in
25-man) will spawn in random locations on the platform. These orbs persist
indefinitely, and they do not do anything unless players come in contact with
them. When a player comes in contact with an orb, the orb is detonated and the
player loses their damage-absorption shield (caused by the
Ancient Miasma) and takes a moderate amount of Shadow damage.

Adds called Living Corruption spawn regularly throughout this phase.
While they sometimes spawn whenever Seismic Slam is cast, their spawning
does not appear to be strictly related to these casts. These adds melee, and
they respond normally to threat mechanics, but they do not have any other
abilities. What they do have, however, is a passive aura that reduces the
movement and spell casting speed of all players within 8 yards by 75%.

10.1.2. Endless Rage Phase

The only difference to the Endless Rage Phase is that players who are
affected by Displaced Energy are now also rooted in place for as long as
they are affected by the debuff.

10.2. Strategy

The Heroic mode changes affect the strategy in each of the two phases, so we
will discuss these separately.

10.2.1. Might of the Kor'kron Phase

During this phase, your raid will have two additional tasks to perform:

Regarding the Living Corruptions, your raid obviously cannot allow any of
these adds to stay alive, since the fact that their aura slows movement speed
makes it impossible for players to move around as needed to avoid the
mechanics of this phase. This means that the Living Corruptions should be
killed off as quickly as possible. They are not very damaging, so it is safe
to bring the adds into melee range and have them cleaved next to Malkorok. This
also ensures that they stay away from ranged raid members who may need to move
around freely.

Since the orbs of corruption persist indefinitely, they end up limiting
your raid's free space, which will cause problems when you need to move around
to avoid Breath of Y'Shaarj or Arcing Smash. This means that
you need to regularly detonate them to make enough space for adequate
movement. That said, since detonating an orb removes the damage-absorption
shield of the player who detonates it, and also damages them, it means that
you cannot simply have people running around and detonating the orbs. Instead,
you must have players with strong damage-reduction cooldowns (such as Shadow
Priests with Dispersion or immunities (Hunters with Deterrence,
Rogues with Cloak of Shadows) detonate as many orbs as they can. Everyone
else must be extremely careful not to come in contact with an orb, since this
will most likely get them killed (especially if they are just about to soak an
Imploding Energy void zone).

You will not be able to keep the room clear of all orbs of corruption, but
this is not necessary as long as you free up a reasonable amount of space.

Aside from this, the strategy for the phase remains unchanged from Normal
mode.

10.2.2. Endless Rage Phase

Even though the change for this phase appears minor, it has a large impact
on the strategy. Since players affected by Displaced Energy cannot move,
it is up to the rest of the raid to get away from these players. There are
currently two working strategies for this phase.

The first (and easiest) strategy is to have your raid use a single tank for
the boss during this phase, while the rest of the raid spreads out around
the room. This tank will need to survive the truly massive amounts of damage
that the boss deals (since there will be no other players there to split the
damage), so a good chaining of tank and external defensive cooldowns must be
used. The Rook's Unlucky Talisman trinket helps greatly with this task.
The rest of the raid can take this time to clear up any remaining orbs of
corruption, before the end of the phase.

The second strategy requires your raid to stack up in front of Malkorok
(as you would do normally for this phase), and to then move through the boss
to the other side each time Displaced Energy is cast. Doing so ensures that all
players who are not rooted will move away from the rooted players. We only
advise trying to make use of this if, for some reason, your tank is unable to
survive solo-tanking the boss (although this should never be the case).